Yours Truly

Chapter 12 - The Twist

The second the airplane had landed and his cellphone reception kicked in, the iPhone in his pocket was full of text messages and missed phone calls. And as he walked out of the second seat in first class, giving a friendly but tight smile to the female flight attendants who returned it with flirty winks and smiles, he returned the missed phone calls, "Darling, I was on the plane- No, no, I haven't seen her yet." Kalim voiced as he flicked his blonde hair back with a toss of his head and brushed his eyes across the jet bridge to navigate his way away from the airplane. "My love, the airplane doesn't fly into her home. Yes, I know- Yes, I heard the gunshots." He tried to say in a weak attempt to get a word in against the flood of worried and panicking from his wife who stayed behind in his Homeland. "I am leaving the plane and I'm meeting a friend who will drive me to the apartment- no, Rafiki didn't tell me where it is. He is a busy man, darling. No, I'm not defending him." He answered and followed it up with an exasperated, "How can I call him when I've been on a plane?" With a deep and calm breath as his wife paused to catch her own, he pounced on the chance to speak, "Give me 15 minutes, my love. I will tell you everything- verbatim- that I find out, yes?" He offered as he walked into the airport and looked around for the signs leading to the baggage claim, then followed their directions; signified by arrows. "I love you. I will talk to you later."

"They have given the Judgement, Kalim."

Kalim had just stepped onto an escalator- just in time to stop dead in his tracks as his heart skipped a beat from the information from his wife. "...I will call you when I find her, my love." He said and ended the call as he put his hand against his mouth. Nothing could change the fact that he and his wife had been fighting a losing battle. However, now the hourglass had been turned and the sand had begun to drizzle down. It was no longer a battle of hiding her and shuffling Zamirah around like a chestnut in a cup game; it was now a race to see who could get to her first:

Kalim the Fifth or Zamirah's Father?

At the woman's apartment, as Zamirah took a shower in the small bathroom her guest satisfied his curiosity by picking up the unopened and unattended to envelope on the coffee table. He didn't hesitate to open it and pull out it's contents with care to leave less evidence of temperament. An ear on the running water in the small room as he read the single letter in the manilla envelope. The lettering was simple and so were the words; but the story behind it? Not quite.

'Your judgement has been decided by order of Hajah Zara and Tribe. Your crimes have earned the punishment of EXECUTION by beheading upon the dawn of December 31st of this year. You will be collected to satisfy your punishment before the tribe, Country, and God.' The paper decreed and Bane replaced it and closed it back up. He set it back down and pulled himself away to walk about the room.

As the shower stopped, Zamirah dried herself off and her hair and within a few minutes she exited the room to see Bane sitting on the bed facing towards her again. She smiled at him shyly as she dried her hair but something was- off. There was something amiss in his body language and the air about him, "Are you well?" She asked and he looked at her,

"Yes." His answer seemed a bit off too as she lowered her towel, "Do I seem unwell?" The question held something behind it even with the metallic hiss of his breathing apparatus. "I could not remember… if I asked you your movie preference." Zamirah's smile gradually returned as she gently reminded him of her answer and he stood up and confirmed. After she was ready, they left- and left the envelope behind. Bane left the fact that he knew the contents in her apartment, and Zamirah left the fact that she didn't know the contents behind in her apartment as well.

"I did have a question for you." Zamirah said as they walked down the stairs to the first floor and towards the curb where a van waited, "Do you provide me with generosity and kindness because I am collateral?" She asked as he opened the door for her and allowed her inside the vehicle first before following her in to sit next to her. "Or is it in your nature?" Bane chuckled as the car was driven away from the curb by Bane's driver.

"Which would you prefer?" Bane asked and she looked him hard in the eyes, her answer already clear as day. The Truth was what she hungered for and she wouldn't be satisfied until she heard it. "I, like many other people, believe in treating others how I am treated." She nodded but it wasn't enough. It wasn't an answer she wanted to hear and she looked away. "Again." She glanced his way as he looked at her with crinkled eyes of amusement. "Ask me again." She turned back to him with a confused look,

"Are you kind to me for yourself or for your plans?" She asked again and Bane gave another answer this time,

"For myself, of course." Bane said and Zamirah scoffed and shook her head while she looked away, "Something the matter?"

"You are a sphinx of an enigma, aren't you?" She asked and looked at him, "If I were to ask you again and again? Would I get a different answer every time?" She asked and he gave a playful but nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, "Oh, what a concrete answer!" Their conversation was much of this back and forth bantering until they reached the movie theater. Even then, as he lead her in on his arm with his men lurking about but she paid them no mind. He had assured her that as long as they were on good terms? The men who supported Bane would do no harm to the woman he had been spending an uncharacteristic amount of time with. One of the men handed her a medium sized bag of popcorn to have while two opened the theater doors into the vacant movie theater for them, "So, what shall we do after this?" She asked with a smile on her face as she moved to select some seats and Bane followed. As she sat down Bane's phone went off and he produced it to look at it- and her smile lost it's radiance as he excused himself to take the phone call outside of the theater. While the movie was put on and previews' had their volume dimmed, she watched them and nibbled on the popcorn while she waited for Bane to return and when he did his mood had soured. "Is everything alright?" She asked as he shrugged off his jacket before easing himself and his large stature into the seat beside her.

"I will not be able to spend the whole day with you, it seems." He informed her and she felt… sadness and dejected, "After the movie I will have to leave." Zamirah looked to the screen to try and focus on the movie but when he rested his arm on the arm rest, she put her hand on top of his. She wanted this to last longer that it would even if it was just one sided- but he turned his hand slightly enough to let hers slide into his and he held her hand without a word. Almost as if… he was silently telling her that it was not just one-sided.

She enjoyed the movie quite a bit but she enjoyed this small warmth and kindness of him holding her hand much, much more as she gradually relaxed and became at ease in her seat and next to him. In the back of her mind, the lurking reminder of her borrowed time running out looked like a neon sign in the red light district. Even if one paid no attention to it, that did not mean it's glaring existence was null and void. Her judgement was still looming… but in another country, right? Right now there was this moment, this movie and in this Country. She focused her sensed in the now.

The smell of the buttered popcorn and Bane's leather jacket. The sensation of his hand gently holding hers a moment longer before he pulled it away to let a rush of cool,brisk air brush against her calm that made her shiver. The act of him placing his jacket in her lap with the wool-side-down for her to use as a blanket. This was followed by him laying his arm in the arm rest again and turning his arm and hand to show the underside and palm up; a quiet invitation? Or a risky gamble, hoping that she would reciprocate his response from earlier? What would be her own response in this type of situation? Instead of her thinking of traditions and how she should response, why didn't she just… act on what she felt? How she felt right now was to lean up against him but for now… Zamirah put her hand in his once more and continued to enjoy the movie quietly with him.

"May I call you later tonight?" He asked and she smiled and nodded shyly, "Then I will speak to you later. Good bye, Zamirah." Bane said as he helped her into the vehicle and she rolled down the window once he shut it,

"Thank you, Bane." she said and he paused and looked at her, wearing his own jacket again, "I had a very enjoyable time with you." Zamirah expressed before adding, "Should I look forward to another day like this?"

"Yes." Bane said with a chuckle before the window rolled up as the car pulled off and his second-in-command walked up next to Bane while he watched the car drive off. "Let's pay a visit to Rafiki."

There was a gasp of pain as a boot was applied to someone's rips and their body slammed into a coffee table; breaking it in the process under both the force of the blow and the weight of the victim. Two militia men hovered as the victim laid on the expensive rug underneath and the shattered table. "I told you everything!" Rafiki yelled as Bane walked around the scene and eyeing the shop owner like a lion would eye a younger lion on its territory.

"You've merely told me what you think I want to hear, Rafiki." Bane responded curtly through the metal mesh and he same to a stop as his heavy boots pattered on the cold floor. "You have quite an...expensive home. How do you afford all this, exactly?" Bane asked slowly and Rafiki huffed and snarkily informed him of his known occupation. His sarcasm earned him a hard punch in the mouth that knocked him back into the pile of glass and wood. "...Who pays for all this, Rafiki?" The tan male took a few laborious gasps of air before answering truthfully,

"My brother… sends me money… for the Unwanted." Rafiki voiced as Bane turned his back to him- "But I spend it instead." One of the few militia men searching the house returned to bane with a large plastic bag of a powdery white substance. Cocaine. Obviously another thing fueled by money that should have been sent to the woman in his care, that 'accidentally never made it'.

"Honesty at last, Rafiki?" Bane questioned and turned to Rafiki, "Now we are getting somewhere." The victim in this situation nodded eagerly as he began to get the hint. Or something of that nature in his drug-devoured mind.

"My brother sent her here too!" Rafiki blurted as Bane casually began his uninterested circling once more, "I mean, if she wasn't such a worthless woman she wouldn't be here- she's even a criminal!" Once more Bane stopped and Rafiki took that as a good sign to keep going. A sign that if Rafiki kept throwing things out, then he would be rid of them, perhaps once and for all, though no such terms had been uttered. "I mean, all she had to do was keep her mouth shut!"

"Oh?" Bane inquired and Rafiki told him exactly what said crime was- but it wasn't what Bane was expecting to be a criminal act. Especially not one where the victim became the criminal.

"Rape isn't really a big deal, she should have just let it happen!" Rafiki blurted out and the militia stopped in their tracks as Bane lifted his chin up almost to hone in on what he was saying when his back was turned to Rafiki. "She wouldn't even be here if she hadn't fought back. It's only right that she's branded as a fucking criminal." Bane didn't say anything and this only encouraged Rafiki, "It will all be fine once she's dead. It will all be swell." Bane nodded and walked over to one of his men.

"Take him to his garage shop and kill him." Bane ordered and Rafiki yelled in protest before he received another kick to the ribs as Bane walked off.

As his men grabbed the foreigner and pulled him into the hallway of his apartment complex, Bane held up a hand for them to halt and they stopped instantly. The imposing man moved in front of them and leaned down to Rafiki, "How many people- in this City- know of this?" He questioned and Rafiki meekly answered that he, Zamirah, and his family knew. "Excellent. Now one less person will know." Bane said and sent his men off with a wave of his hand as he stood in the hallway. Watching as the man was dragged off before producing his cell phone from his pocket as one of his other commanding officers came out of the house and stood next to him for further orders. "Point the local authorities in the right direction for his… timely demise." Bane instructed as he pressed a few buttons on his phone and put it up towards his ear, waiting for the person on the other line to pick up. There was an answer, "Good evening… May I come over?" Bane asked the person on the other line before looking down, "...I understand. I will be over shortly." He voiced as he began walking towards the elevator to descend to the lower floors of the building while he ended the call.

Zamirah had given him the ok to go to her lackluster residence but her voice had been cracking and she had been sniffling. Perhaps she had finally read the news herself. "I will be indisposed." Bane alerted a few of his men as he strolled into the elevator and rode it down to the lobby, strolling out just as casually as if he owned the world.

Though you must know, Reader, it didn't matter how quickly or not Bane got to the apartment of Zamirah. Why? It was because Kalim the Fifth got there first.

"Uncle?" Zamirah asked as Kalim stood before her. He reached out and touched her hair sadly but she rushed forward and hugged him tightly and let out a little sob, "I don't know what to do." She whimpered and he glanced at the coffee table to see that a paper laid on its surface as he hugged her tightly. "I don't know what to do." He let her go and pulled her into the apartment, shutting the door and pulled her back into his arms as he laid his back against the wall to the left of the door. No matter how tightly he squeezed her it would never be enough to change this reality for her. As she sobbed into his shoulder, Kalim stroked her hair and tried to calm her down with gentle shushing as a mother would, as both their minds scrambled to think of anything.

Anything to stall a death meant for the wrong party.